


You're the perfect distraction, you're the main attraction

by So_Not_The_Fastest_Man_Alive



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Retail, I can't stop shipping these two, M/M, many rarepairs, rarepairs, so I wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-10-24 09:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20703980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/So_Not_The_Fastest_Man_Alive/pseuds/So_Not_The_Fastest_Man_Alive
Summary: Clint and Scott work at a mall that's probably the least realistic mall ever written, and it spirals from there.





	1. Chapter 1

Clint stood at the counter of Starbucks questioning his life choices, for example why did he apply to what had to be the only 24/7 Starbucks in a mall full of 24/7 stores in the whole damn world, more importantly why does this place seem to only hire teenagers. But this was Saturday, or maybe it was technically Sunday, and that meant that the cute guy from school who he only vaugely knew who works at the Baskin Robbins across from Starbucks was also working. Occasionally he'd come over for a coffee and every so often Clint went to get some ice-cream.

They'd both flirted with each other before but never properly talked, well if everything goes according to Clint's plan that'll change really soon. At exactly five minutes until one in the morning, one being when they both were free from their cursed jobs, Clint calmly took off his apron and sat it where he got before crossing the wide stretch of tiled mall floor between the two stores.

"Hi, welcome to Bas- Oh, it's you, hey you want your usual?" The guy asked joy painted across his face in a cartoonish grin.

"No, I'm not here for ice-cream, I'm here because, well basically, all this flirting's been nice and all but I'd like to move things up a notch." The words spewed out of Clint's mouth in an anxious rush to say what he had to.

"Oh, I'm- um- okay just give me a second to change into my normal clothes." The guy ran out of the main area of the store and a couple of minutes later came back in a red t-shirt and jeans as well as a backpack, no doubt holding his work clothes.

"You know what's weird we've been flirting with each other the last few months and I still don't know your name." Clint chuckled as they left the store and made their way towards the exit.

"Didn't you ever, like, read my name tag?" He smiled at Clint's look of Oh-Shit-I'm-An-Idiot-I-Could've-Done-That, "It's Scott by the way."

"I'm Clint," then Clint realised that clearly Scott had read his name tag, "But you already knew that." 

The two passed through the automatic sliding glass doors and into the cold darkness of the pre-sunrise morning, Clint watched as Scott made what should have been a short detour to unchain his bike but noticed a slight problem with that, namely that the whole damn bike had been stolen.

"Wait, you bike here and back, in the dead of night?" Clint was shocked.

"Normally my friend Luis drops me off and I bike back." Scott explains.

"Well I guess I'll just have to drive you home then." Clint stated matter of factly, a small smirk forming on his face.

"My knight in shining armour." Scott remarked, glad he didn't need to walk like the last two times his bike was stolen.

Clint's car was one of the few actually in the parking lot, it was small and a little beat up but it was his favourite shade of purple and had a working heater which he'd need because it was freezing. After a moment fumbling with his keys he finally managed to open the car and Clint immediately turned the heater on straight to full blast.

They sat there for a handful of minutes enjoying the warmth and just being so close to one another. Eventually however Clint reluctantly put the car in drive and Scott told Clint his address, after that they made small talk, mostly about school and the upcoming dance that neither of them were planning on going to.

"Well, I guess this is my stop, I should probably invite you in, it would be the polite thing to do." Scott remarked climbing out of the car and swinging his backpack over his shoulder.

Clint climbed out of the car and locked it before looking at the house, it wasn't particularly noteworthy but it was two stories so that was something. The pairs first kiss was at the start of the concrete path joining the sidewalk to the front door, by the time the stepped inside they were fulling making out, mainly because they'd both wanted to make out for the past few months, but also partly because they we're 17 year old guys and it was some ungodly hour of the morning.

Things were getting way more heated than they probably should've given that Clint basically had Scott pinned to the front door.

"Wait," Scott gently pushed Clint off him, "I mean, my mom's a light sleeper, and uh my daughter is just getting to the point where she sleeps through the nigh-"

"Daughter?" The question rushed out of Clint's mouth before he could think, he definitely had to work on that.

"Oh, yeah- The one time I actually went to a party things went a little, actually a lot bad, long story short I wound up in juvie for eight months and didn't remember that night and when I got out, well you can work out the rest." Scott seemed less bothered about actually telling the story and more about how Clint would react.

"Wow that's a lot to- Oh wait, of course I remember that now, it's no big deal. Anyway I can come back later, maybe lunch?" Clint offered, he didn't want to leave but he was willing to respect Scott's wishes.

"Yeah, lunch sounds great, I'll see you at what like, half past twelve?" Scott got a small nod as Clint left.

Clint got back to his and Natasha apartment in record time, well it felt like record time given how his mind was wandering, which probably wasn't the best thing while driving.

They were actually able to afford a decent apartment because working nights at the mall paid rather well. Clint slowly opened the door, Natasha was likely going to tear him apart for being later than normal. But to Clint's surprise when he slipped past the door Natasha wasn't ready to lecture him she was curled up sleeping on their couch. That's when Clint remembered she'd had to work from six to midnight at Hot Topic, which was weirdly their peak hours.

Clint stealthily slipped into the small hallway then into his room, flopping onto his bed. He grabbed his charger cable and plugged his phone in, because it'd died halfway through a YouTube video during his shift. Clint was ready to sleep and just about to float off to the world of dreams when his phone screen lit up at full brightness, after a panicked, blind rush to turn the brightness down he found he had a notification from Instagram, specifically that he had a new follower.

That follower was of course Scott so he quickly followed him back then opened his DM's and messaged Scott.

Clint: What's cookin' good lookin'

Scott: I'm eating out of a box of fruit loops, so literally nothing

Scott: Also I think you'll find you're the good looking one

Clint: Agree to disagree

Scott: Didn't wake anyone getting home did you???

Clint: Nah, Nat's dead to the world she's that deep asleep

Scott: nat?

Clint: Oh right, she's a friend, her parents died or disappeared or smthn, so I agreed to move out and we'd split rent on an apartment

Scott: that's so cool

The pair continued like this for a while before they decided they both really needed to sleep.

Clint woke up at ten and changed into a black t-shirt with a big purple arrow on it and black jeans before leaving his room.

"Morning, lover boy." Natasha smiled seeing something Clint physically couldn't.

"How did you know Baskin Robbins guy and I-" Clint was about to question.

"Well you have one of the biggest hickies I've seen since Thor and Quill hooked up," Natasha said sipping from her coffee, "So you finally had a conversation with him, good work."

"Yeah, his name is Scott and we're going on a lunch date and- oh shit, I can't go outside with a huge ass hickie on my neck." Clint started to panic a bit.

"Dumbass it's fine, I still have concealer from when you kept getting into fights and I had to hide your bruises." Natasha rolled her eyes, while Clint took a photo to see just how bad it was.

"Oh God, if I'm this bad I can only imagine how bad Scott must be." Clint said, before sending the photo to Scott.

Clint: I'm so damn sorry I can only imagine how bad you must be

Scott: It's fine I have concealer for a reason but here have a look

Then Scott sent a photo and Clint's jaw dropped, Scott's neck was littered with Hickies.

"Lucky charms?" Natasha inquired grabbing two bowls from the cupboard.

"Yeah sure." Clint replied simply.

After a quiet breakfast Nat set about covering the hickie on Clint's neck which took a good ten minutes to make it disappear it was then that Clint got a message from Scott.

Scott: hey I know this is a shitty thing to do a few hours before our date but I think I might need to bring my daughter with us because mom's working

Clint: nah, that's fine it'll be fun

Scott: U sure? 'cause like idk anyone our age who'd be so cool with this

Clint: it's cool I like kids 

Scott: okay you're so great about this :)

Clint: :)

"Wow, you must be head over heels because you're grinning like an idiot." Nat remarked as she flicked mindlessly through channels on TV.

"It's been a long time coming, so let me enjoy it." Clint replied jumping and landing next to Nat on the couch.

The next few hours felt like an eternity for Clint, especially once Nat left to go help at the orphanage because that's what she did on Sundays because despite all evidence to the contrary Nat loves helping people, also it looks good on a resume but that's a bonus.

Eventually however the time came for Clint to get in his car to go pick up Scott and his daughter, as he pulled up he saw Scott holding a little girls hand.

"Cassie come on, it's time to go out for lunch." Scott said and the little girl trotted behind him as he held her hand in on hand and carried a children's car seat in his other.

Yeah, Clint was so damn in love with Scott.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because literally one person asked here's more

Loki sat on the counter of Hot Topic, totally not checking out Bucky who was stocking shelves, because that would be rude and also because Pietro would probably deck him, Loki still didn't quite understand how they got together but still.

"Oh my god, he didn't." Gamora chuckled as she, Hope, and Peggy passed the store.

"Yeah he did, Steve's sneakers are still stuck in the cement." Peggy said, enjoying a nice little bit of gossiping.

"Wait, Hope I need to speak to you," Loki called, sliding off the counter and jogging up to her, "Is it true that Clint and Scott are dating?"

"Uh, yeah I think so, 'bout time anyway, wait if I remember they're at the coffee shop where Steve and Stephen had their first date." Hope replied knowing Loki was going to crash their date.

Loki nodded as he headed of to the parking lot in a full sprint, completely abandoning his shift, but then again Bucky and him had an unspoken agreement, that if Loki just wandered off Bucky'd cover for him, and if Bucky and Pietro headed to the backroom, to make out get your mind out of the gutter, Loki would cover for them.

Speaking of Pietro he wasn't far away, in fact he was at the food court working, well that and having thoughts he probably shouldn't be having at work when Steve walked up to the counter.

"Hey Pietey, Stephen and I'll have our usuals." Steve said, snapping Pietro out of his trance and got to work ringing up the order.

"Just making sure, one chicken salad wrap with a small orange juice and a large fries with a medium orange soda?" Pietro got a nod from Steve who handed over the exact amount of cash needed.

"So while that's getting done, where's Stephen?" Pietro wondered out loud.

"He's in that new book store, y'know next to the place where Peter and Gwen work." Steve said 

Speaking of, Gwen bobbed her head to the music blaring through her headphones as she fixed the misplaced comics people moved, because apparently common human decency and putting something back where it belongs aren't things that people like.

Peter stood at the counter, absentmindedly fiddling with some keychains that had been displayed on the counter since before he'd been hired, he wasn't staring at Flash in the sporting goods store on the other side, because Flash was his bully and an asshat, and having a crush on him would be so damn weird, so yeah, he wasn't staring. The store never seemed busy when Peter and Gwen worked at the same time, something they both found super spooky, but right now it was dead empty and Peter was so close to running over to Flash and talking to him, even though he knows Gwen would stop him before he could get anywhere near, so he instead decided to message MJ.

Peter: Hey MJ how's work??

MJ: it's meh, Stephen's here tho, he's trying to find one specific book that he saw here a few weeks back, little does he know Steve bought it for his birthday

Peter: This is the wholesome and I honestly ship them so much

MJ: no I'm pretty sure your chaotic bi ass is just projecting the built up feelings you have for Flash, Eddie, and someone else's who I'm not sure about, am I right?

Peter: Plz stop reading psych textbooks while working

MJ: ....no

It was at this point Peter saw Loki just burst past the store in a full sprint, how someone with Loki's build could run that fast, or even maintain blood flow in the skinniest skinny jeans Peter's ever seen. Loki kept his sprint up until he burst through the automatic doors and spotted Hela's car not far away, so he ran and dove through the open window on the passenger side.

"Not again, what do you want this time you drowned rat?" Hela sighed.

"Corner cafe on twenty-second street, there's a frozen yoghurt punch card that's only missing one in it for you." Loki said righting himself in the passenger seat and putting the seat belt on.

"You're so damn lucky that the only thing I love is frozen yoghurt." Hela sighed pulling her car out of the parking lot and began to drive towards the cafe, passing by the Maximoff house, where a group was studying for an upcoming physics test.

"Could you two just keep you're tongues out of each other's throats long enough to actually study." The thinly veiled rage behind Wanda's sarcasm was obvious enough to make Thor and Quill to seperate.

"Thanks Wanda." Bruce said, clearly she'd seen just how uncomfortable they'd been making him.

"No problem, ace pals forever." Wanda offered a fist bump, that Bruce returned.

"Now can we study or am I going to have to kick you all out of my girlfriend's house?" Carol's question was more or less a statement.

Quill and Thor mumbled something that sounded like apologies and the five of them started studying, after close to an hour of just sitting there.

"Hurry up Hela I have a reputation of just showing up at people's first dates to uphold." Loki whined as they stopped at a set of traffic lights.

"Do you want to walk?" Loki didn't respond to Hela's question, "That's what I thought."

Soon however they were crusing ever closer to the coffee shop, passing by Shuri and the new girl, who hasn't technically started yet, Kamala.

"Yeah, no, the move wasn't that bad, then again I only moved from Jersey, not freaking Wakanda, which is so cool." Kamala answered to Shuri, as Hela's car passed.

"Well, you seem pretty cool yourself." Shuri replied, throwing in a wink and a finger gun for good measure.

Five minutes later, Loki burst into the cafe where Clint and Scott were having lunch with Cassie sitting in a high chair. Loki strolled up, grabbed a chair and sat at the table with the couple, and the baby.

"If you need someone to babysit, I have the number Pepper uses for her baby sitting service." Loki said, tearing off a chunk of Scott's cinnamon roll and tossing it gently into his mouth.

"Um, thanks." Scott replied, completely blindsided by Loki's sudden appearance.

"It's no problem, now as for the reason I am here, I wanted to be among the first to say I'm happy for you two idiots, however if either of you breaks the others heart Hope and Natasha will go to war, just a polite warning." Loki watched as Cassie giggled at him.

"Thanks Loki, I guess for the sentiment and the ominous warning." Clint replied.

"It's nothing, now on a more serious note, take this," Loki stuffed a handful of fifty dollar notes into Clint's hand, "And go out for dinner tonight, my treat, well technically my asshat of a father but I refuse to take his money so, just put it to better use than I would."

With that Loki got up and walked straight out of the cafe, leaving a slightly confused Clint and Scott as well as a giggling Cassie. He strolled down the street making his way home.

"So, uh, you know that really fancy Italian place down the street from here, wanna go out to dinner, I know it's really expensive, not to mention like one of those 'you have to wear a suit' places, but Loki must handed me over five hundred dollars, and I mean we'll have to get suits but-" Clint was throwing the words out fast.

"I, uh, already have a suit." It took Scott a second to catch up to Clint's rant.

"Oh, cool, and I guess I only really like a jacket thing and such, I already have a tie." Clint said with what might have been an accidental wink, but it might not have been.

"Let me guess, it's purple, you're really obsessed with purple aren't you?" Scott let out a laugh at his own comment.

"Oh, says you mister I seem to only own red shirts." Clint threw back, laughing aswell, when his phone buzzed.

Loki:I took the liberty of getting you two a reservation at Luigi's, it's the place down the street from the cafe, at eight, my recommendation is you pick him up at 7:30

Loki: and I already hired Pepper to watch Cassie, you two get three hours

"Hey Scott, when we get married we're hiring Loki as our wedding planner, he's one organised little weasel." Clint remarked.


	3. Chapter 3

Scott was excited, and nervous, and basically everything in-between, because they'd started dating in the early hours of today, then they'd had lunch, and now they were going to a fancy restaurant thanks to Loki, so to say today'd been weird was kinda an understatement, and now as he awkwardly tried, and kinda failed to tie his tie he got a message from Clint.

Clint: Hey, so I'm sorry I know I said I'd pick you up but like Nat had a thing and I'm running late so if you could swing by that'd be great, again sorry

Scott: Nah, it's fine I'll be there in like five

Scott managed to get his tie on properly and called an Uber, and was there in close to six minutes, as he rushed up the stairs he realised that maybe he should've waited for the elevator.

He knocked on the door to the apartment. When the door opened, Scott was not greeted by his boyfriend but instead by Natasha Romonov, in a tank top and sweatpants.

"Bird Brain isn't ready yet." Natasha said as she motioned for Scott to come in to wait

Natasha stepped out of the doorway and Scott made his way in. The once snow white carpet hadn't been vacuumed in about a month that was plain to see, the actually kinda big couch was pushed into the corner with the TV across from it with a coffee table in-between the two.

Scott shuffled in awkwardly, he had no idea what he could or couldn't touch, but he made his way towards the couch and Natasha closed the door behind him.

"Do you want, like, coffee or tea or something?" Natasha offered, trying to be a gracious host.

"Oh, I- Just some water please." Scott replied.

Natasha made her way into the hall then into the kitchen, leaving Scott alone to half-pay attention to the bizarre spanish soap opera that Natasha had been watching for some unknown reason. Scott took in the sights of the room in greater detail, the walls were a fluorescent lemony yellow with only the occasional movie poster to distract from the stinging colour of the walls, and there was a window but it was foggy and unclean.

"Ahem." Natasha signalled for him to take the glass from her, even though he hadn't seen or heard her come back in.

Scott took a small sip and started to pay more attention to the TV, and for a while they sat in a comfortable silence, until Natasha spoke up again.

"He should be done soon, which means I have to do the stereotypical 'You hurt him, I hurt you're kinda thing, so y'know hurt him and I will not hesitate to shatter every bone in your body," Scott nearly choked on his water as Nat basically threatened his life, "But you seem like a good guy, so I hope it won't come to that."

Natasha's focus didn't leave the TV for a second while she talked, Scott couldn't even see her blink once during the entire thing.

"Thanks?" Scott croaked out.

They sat there in silence until they heard a door open and both of their attention was thrown towards the small hallway that lead off the room. Clint walked into the room, in a black suit with a, yep Scott had called it earlier, purple tie. Scott stood up from the couch and headed over to Clint.

"Wow, you look- just wow." Is all Scott could say as he was to busy drinking in his boyfriend's apparence.

"You don't look so bad yourself." Clint said, trying to cover up his nerves, as he reached in and fixed Scott's tie which had somehow turned to an awkward angle.

"Hey, losers your reservation is in like ten minutes, you should get going now." Natasha called, as the couple awkwardly stared into each other's eyes.

"Right, bye Nat." Clint said as he scooped up his keys from the coffee table.

"No sex in the apartment." Natasha called right as the pair left, causing them to blush furiously.

Needless to say the date went well, extremely well, infact it went so well that when Nat woke up the next morning and went straight for the kitchen, she was greeted by both Clint and Scott.

"Clinton Francis Barton, we had an agreement about what does and does not happen in the apartment and we decided that.." Natasha was cut of by Clint handing her a mug of coffee.

"We didn't do that Nat, we just cuddled, I swear." Clint said as he grabbed a frying pan of bacon off the stove.

"Yeah, fine I believe you." Nat's tone seemed to go against what she said.

"Wait, hold up, yesterday was sunday right?" Scott inquired from where he sat on the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, what about it? Oh shit, I'll drop you home soon..." This time it was Clint's turn to be cut off.

"Actually I texted Hope last night to see if she could drop some of my stuff up here, just like stuff I need for school, so it's fine." Scott explained, then there was a knock on the door and Scott noticed a handful of messages from Hope.

Hope: I'm on my way

Hope: Okay I'm here

Hope: Don't make me knock

Hope: Fine you asked for it

The knocking became almost violent as Scott scrambled to the door and threw it open. 

"'Bout time," Hope cracked a smile, "Change of clothes, engineering textbook, and a spare toothbrush." Hope listed off as she shoved Scott's backpack at him.

"Thanks so much Hope." Scott smiled before running off to go get changed in the bathroom.

"You can come in by the way." Clint called from the kitchen.

"'Kay, thanks." Hope called back.

Scott changed as fast as he could, after taking the quickest possible shower he could. About four minutes later he was back in the kitchen with everyone else.

Yeah, Scott was so damn in love with Clint.


End file.
